


Persephone

by sanctuary_for_all



Series: The Lord and Ladies of Hell [11]
Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Angst, But it's okay, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Future Fic, I Should Maybe Apologize Though, Someone dies, it all works out in the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-30
Updated: 2016-05-30
Packaged: 2018-07-11 01:46:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7020610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctuary_for_all/pseuds/sanctuary_for_all
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Persephone had known exactly what she was doing with those pomegranate seeds. At least, that was how Chloe had always seen it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Persephone

Persephone had known exactly what she was doing with those pomegranate seeds.

At least, that was how Chloe had always seen it. Her mother had spent her entire childhood prepping her for the Hollywood career she would never have, showing her exactly how to bat her eyelashes and play dumb while squeezing agents and film financiers for every last penny. Chloe mostly rejected the approach – a decision she could admit had gotten her in trouble a time or two – but she could respect the need for it. And a minor goddess who didn't want to go home but also didn't want to piss off her much more powerful mother? Sneakiness and loopholes had definitely been the safest approach.

As to why she'd done it... well, Chloe reserved judgment on that one. No matter how confining living with an all-powerful mother might have felt – and Chloe could understand that, too – you had to love someone a hell of a lot to shut yourself down in the darkness with them for the rest of eternity.

000

Chloe was dead.

Lucifer sat in the hospital's waiting room, staring at nothing and trying to breathe past the black hole that had made its home in his chest. He had known this would happen, had been given decades to prepare for it, but in that moment it seemed like he'd barely had time to blink. It felt like falling all over again, tasting a glory unmatched even by heaven only to have it ripped out of his arms an instant later.

And now all that was left was an eternity without her. Because while his restrictions had eased considerably since returning to earth, he still wasn't allowed beyond the gates of heaven. And, no matter how angry she'd made his Father over the years, Lucifer had made it clear he would burn it all down if he dared try to send Chloe to hell. She deserved so much better.

_"Make sure she gets into heaven safely." Lucifer didn't remember how long ago he'd made request of Amenadiel – he measured time by how much of Chloe's hair had turned white, by the lines that appeared on her beautiful face, and in the last few years he'd mostly tried to pretend it wasn't happening at all. "Please."_

_Amenadiel had laid a hand on his shoulder, pure sympathy on his face. "I will."_

"Lucifer!" Trixie's voice, eternally young to Lucifer's ears despite the fact that her second grandchild had been born the year before. She ran in, her own tears not yet dried on her cheeks as she crouched down in front of Lucifer. "It's okay." She squeezed his hand, voice thick with emotion. "It doesn't seem like it now, but it's going to be okay."

He dragged her into his arms for a hug, half-collapsing around her, and she squeezed him back with all the strength in her body. "You'll see her again," he murmured, his own eyes filling. "You're a bloody ray of sunshine. God himself couldn't keep you out of heaven."

She hugged him even more tightly, knowing what he wasn't saying. "Come home with Mike and me. I don't want you alone tonight."

He shook his head, pulling back and swiping at his eyes. "I should check on Hell." He hadn't escaped his responsibilities to Hell, but at least he now had a door that opened in both directions. He would be able to take care of Trixie's descendents for centuries to come. "I haven't been back in too long."

Alarm flared in her eyes. "But not to stay, right?" She clutched at him, a little girl again. "I can't lose you, too. Not so close to Mom."

He leaned forward, pressing a kiss against her forehead. "Not to stay." He would lose Trixie, too, when she died, but he refused to let her go early. "But I just... I can't be here. Not right now."

She nodded, the tears falling again, then pulled him into another hug. "I understand," she whispered. "Just make sure you come back."

000

Slipping back into Hell was as easy as it had always been, a silent suggestion that this was where he truly belonged. He didn't bother brushing away the ash that fell on him, listening to the muffled screams in the distance that was as familiar here as the sounds of traffic were in Los Angeles. The yawning emptiness was still in his chest, a feeling that he suspected would be with him for the rest of eternity.

His feet took him to his "palace," a looming black structure that looked like the villain's lair from some terrible late-night horror movie. Any majesty suggested by the outside appearance was entirely ironic, since inside was just as soot-covered and miserable as the rest of Hell. He was being punished just as much as everyone else down here, after all.

Lucifer stood in front of the door for a long moment, then sighed and let himself in. It had years since he'd looked inside, and he half hoped that one of the damned had snuck in and caused enough damage to provide a distraction. Not that it had ever been in good enough shape for him to—

Lux. It was Lux.

Lucifer stood frozen in the half-open door, staring at what had once been a gothic nightmare of a throne room and now looked exactly like the piano bar that he and Chloe still lived above. It was empty, the spotlight on above the piano like it was waiting for someone, and the illusion was so complete that Lucifer had to duck his head back outside to make sure he was still in Hell.

Slowly, carefully, Lucifer stepped all the way inside and shut the door behind him, throat closed up tight and breath frozen in his lungs. He didn't start to tremble, however, until he heard an achingly familiar set of footsteps coming down the stairs. She was wearing her favorite pair of jeans and a plum-colored button-down she'd stolen from him several years before, her face as young as it had been the day he'd first met her. "So," she held out her hands to encompass the room, her smile like a beam of sunlight in the darkness. "What do you think?"

The sound of her voice jerked him into action in a way nothing else in the universe could have. "How _dare_ he!" He was furious at his Father, incensed that he would dare to punish the best woman he'd ever known simply for the crime of loving him. "He had no right to send you here, _none_. You _deserve_ heaven. You deserve _more_ than heaven." He started pacing, making plans. "I told him I would go to war over this, and if he—"

"Lucifer!" She'd run to him, grabbing his arm and turning him around to face her. "Lucifer, listen." Her voice softened as she lifted her hands to frame his face. "It wasn't God, it was me. I _chose_ this."

The anger vanished as if it had never been, leaving him reeling. "No." He reached for her without making the conscious decision to do so, pulling her into his arms. "No. You don't want to do this." He buried his face against her neck, breathing her in, and even though she didn't technically have a physical body anymore she somehow smelled exactly the same. "You deserve so much more than Hell."

"I deserve _you_." She wrapped her arms around him as if she could somehow protect him from the whole world, making Lucifer's eyes fill. "And you deserve to have a home, even here." She pulled back just enough to look up at him, lips curving upward even though her eyes were wet. "Which is why I redecorated a little."

He looked around, the significance so much greater now that he knew it wasn't some kind of horrible punishment-induced hallucination. "You did this?"

She nodded, clearly pleased with herself. "I got the idea from you, actually. You always say that people punish themselves in Hell, so I wondered what would happen if someone came down here who _didn't_ think they deserved to be punished." She wiggled her fingers at the room behind them. "It turns out they get a lot more flexibility."

"But...." He wasn't certain he could physically make himself let go of her, but he still needed to give her the chance to let go of him. "You don't.... You can't want this for eternity." He smoothed his thumb over her cheek, his voice shaking. "It's miserable out there. And Trixie... you know she'll go to heaven...."

"Amenadiel said she should be able to visit, using the same way I did to move down here permanently," Chloe said firmly, sadness tingeing her voice for the first time. Of course she missed her daughter. "He said he'd escort her himself if he had to." Then she smiled. "And are you really trying to tell me she'd be fine not being able to at least say hi to you for the rest of eternity?"

He couldn't breathe, but if that was the price he had to pay he'd never breathe again. "I... I told her I'd go back...."

"You'd better." She pulled him back into her arms, holding on tight. "I don't want her all alone up there. We'll just have to put you on timeshare for the next few decades, like Hades and Demeter did with Persephone."

He vaguely remembered the myth, at the time resenting the fact that Hades hadn't had to spend the eternities alone. If only he'd known. "Are you sure?" he asked again, even as he tightened his arms around her. "I'm not worth an eternity in the dark."

"I'm absolutely sure," Chloe murmured, holding on just as tight as he was. "And we won't be in the dark. When you love someone, you bring the light down with you."

There was a gratitude so deep no words were enough to truly give voice to it. Lucifer, squeezing his eyes shut as the tears came back, didn't try.  

**Author's Note:**

> Come check out my new original fiction on my [blog](http://jennifferwardell.blogspot.com) or say hi to me on [Tumblr](http://sanctuaryforalluniverses.tumblr.com)


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